The invention relates generally to steam appliances, and more particularly to steam appliances including a fragrance diffuser that emits a fragrance or other vapor when the appliance generates steam.
Steaming devices used to apply steam to household objects are well known. The uses of the devices vary widely, and may include the application of steam to drapes or other fabrics to remove wrinkles, and the application of steam to objects to assist in cleaning the various objects and surfaces.
In general, nozzles used with the steam appliances do not have large surface areas and a cloth or fabric pad is placed over a steam frame to provide an enlarged steaming or cleaning surface. The fabric pad may have hook and loops fasteners, such as Velcro strips to secure the fabric to cleats on the nozzle. Alternatively, a fabric steam pocket may be placed around a flat steam frame with baffles in order to increase the cleaning surface area of the appliance.
Recently, steam appliances have been developed where water is pumped from a water reservoir to a boiler in response to the push-pull movement of the appliance. This movement actuates a mechanical or electrical pump to pump water from the water reservoir to a steam generator in the appliance for feeding steam to the fabric pad or pocket. Examples of these features in steam appliances are shown and described in parent application Ser. No. 11/496,143 and Ser. No. 11/769,525. Hand-held devices include steam brushes with mechanical or electrical pumps as shown in U.S. application Ser. No. 12/540,957, or electrical pumps as shown in Ser. No. 12/617,518. Additionally, the appliance may have a rigid steam frame for installing a fabric pad or fabric steam pocket as shown in these applications, or have a flexible steam frame as shown in Ser. No. 12/554,477. The contents of each of these applications are incorporated here by reference in their entirety.
Notwithstanding the wide variety of steam appliances with various types of steam frames available, it remains desirable to provide additional steam products having improved features, such as emitting a vapor or fragrance when desired.